Great work on the entries everyone. Cherppow and I were pleased. I\'ll go ahead and give the winners first, then if you want to know why we chose who we did, you can read the little blurb about each...
Winners
2D: Gentar
3D: Wired_Crawler
Congrats to our two winners. I\'ll be pming you your prizes.
Don\'t go thinking, however, that everyone else is a loser because they didn\'t win...they just didn\'t win.
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2D entries--
Donguri: You have a good concept here with the sort of beaver-like homes built just above the swamp and under the tree roots. You also gave the concept a nice feeling with the generally darker palette. It would have been nice, however, to see some better highlights here. You can keep the dark palette, while at the same time give us some lighter lights (especially in the shiny decorations). In addition, try to rely less on the outlines (thinner is better), and get some good reference. With some good reference, and less outlines, this could be a great piece.
Kintall: The texture and designs on the structures are great. Those are probably the strongest aspect of the piece. We also get a good swampy feeling from the background picture. One problem with the background, however, is that it throws off the perspective of the structures with the horizon line being so low (making the further structures seem like they are tipping). You could also work on using outlines a bit less. It\'s ok to have some, just don\'t rely on them to communicate edges (there are no outlines in real life, yet we can clearly see edges). As far as taking this to 3d goes, I think I\'d want some more small details. For example, the bridges were a bit plain. I\'d have no idea what to do with those. Lastly, the structural style was perhaps a bit too advanced for gobbles...but I guess that\'s somewhat subjective.
Learch: The text explanation was good, and helped give some background on the piece. Overall the technique was nice, and had good shading on the trees/sticks, and small rocks. The only thing the piece really lacked was an environment. Currently it looks like it\'s sitting on a cliff with blue sky in the background. Some swampy details are necessary, as well as a tiny bit more detail on the cliff to the left (just looks a bit plain at the moment). I think in general just try to give us a bit more sense of the environment, I\'m not really sure where this is supposed to be right now.
Farren: You have a good concept here, it just needs a bit more development. Currently there is no environment, not much shading (just on the little spikes, but the actual round hut doesn\'t look all that round), and the materials are a bit unclear. Some colour (I told Cherppow I\'d spell it with a \'u\' like he does) would probably help give us an idea as for the materials you were going for. We weren\'t sure if the spikes were supposed to be wood, or bone, or something else. Also, seeing a bit more would be nice. The tree/chimney in the back is a bit unclear at the moment. Like I said, the concept is great, you just need to hack out a bit more of the details for us.
Gentar: Your technique is good, though a bit on the sketchy side. The background was enough (it\'s just enough to give that swamp feeling, but not enough to distract attention), and the amount of detail is great. Both Cherppow and I would feel pretty comfortable taking this to 3d (and that\'s a big part of the reason we chose this one to win). Keep an eye on your perspective as you work, however (a bit hard with all the funny angles), and be sure to erase all those false lines.
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3D entries--
Archon: I think this obviously just needs to be finished. A name for this dungeon (per the instructions...), a simple background, and complete texture would make this pretty decent. The mesh looks pretty clean, just needs a bit more time into it to get it finished.
Thenior: The textures are nice and dirty. Your biggest problem (beyond the fact that this too is missing a name) is that it doesn\'t really have a style that pulls it all together. You have the angular marking in the door, then the round frame, and roundish marking on the door frame. The marking on top and the door frame fit pretty well, but the angular didn\'t complement it so well. Also, the purple/blue in the marking was a bit distracting. You\'re in need of a colour theme as well, and we didn\'t think the blue/purple really fit. Beyond that, it just needs to be finished off also. You may have a little issue with the uv\'s too, there\'s a little jump in the texture at the top and bottom of the door, but it\'s a relatively small problem.
Niber: While this is obviously 2d, and not finished, I\'d have to say that your concept is the most interesting of the four. It\'s too bad it
wasn\'t yours ya little thief. Erik\'s were much better anyway.
Wired_Crawler: Well, saying as this was the only one really finished according to the instructions, it\'s kinda hard not to give it the win. Overall it is a great start, but there are several things that could use some work. They all center around the textures mainly (the mesh looks nice and clean). The texture that could use the most work is the stone. The highlights are a bit to bright, and the bevels are too deep, which make it look plasticy. In nature stone has a much more matte finish. In addition to the highlights, it could use some more color variation as well (more dirt, more variations in stone color, etc.). The other big one was that you need to watch your uv space. Your door frame looks like it has more uv space than the door, which has much more uv space than the ground. Giving the ground some more would really help. Last, and less of an issue, was your moss was a little too uniform. It was all uniform in length, as well as horizontal spacing. Give it some more variation. I know I pointed out a lot of things you can work on, but there are way more things that you did right. Great job.
I hope you all don\'t think I\'ve been too negative in these...I\'m trying to keep them positive, but I don\'t want to leave anything out that you can work on either. If I\'ve missed anything, or said something wrong, I\'m sure Cherppow will swing by and embarass me. Great work on the entries everybody. I\'ll have challenge #2 up in a few days.
